During surgery, retractors, such as those found in the BOOKWALTER™ retractor kit, which is commercially available from Codman & Shurtleff, Inc. of Raynham, Mass., are often used to assist the surgeon and other operating room personnel to provide exposure to the surgical site for a broad range of surgical procedures. In surgical operations of the chest or abdomen, for example, it is often necessary to use a retraction apparatus to retain tissue away from the operative site. Typically, the retraction apparatus includes a housing member configured to lock onto a circumferential ring 22 located above the operative site (see FIGS. 1A and 1B). A retraction blade can usually be found for grabbing the tissue around the surgical incision. The housing member can also include a ratcheting mechanism and/or a tilting mechanism to draw the retraction blade away from the incision, thereby effecting the pulling away and/or lifting of the tissue around the incision to expose the desired surgical area. Examples of such retractor systems are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,254,763, 4,424,724, 5,375,481, and 6,808,493, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety. During open surgical operations, such as, for example, open bariatric, ALIF procedures, hepatic resections, transplant procedures, abdominal aortic aneurysms, hernia repair, appendectomy, and others, many different instruments are used, such as, for example, a retractor blade with ring attachment systems. In some medical procedures, other instruments, such as, for example, cameras, laparoscopic instruments, and fiber optic cables are also used in the surgical area. These instruments typically are used so that their distal end is located in the surgical site. The instrument has a clamp on its proximal end. The instrument is connected to a post adjacent to the surgical area. However, in many instances, the post is not in a convenient location for the surgeon at the operating site.
Thus, there is a need for a system that can securely hold a number of different instruments at a convenient location for the surgeon at the operating site. The system should be adjustable and sufficiently strong to carry the load from the instrument. The system includes an adjustable arm that bends with one curve or a double curve.